Working Hard and Having Fun

A few days ago Disco Queen Donna Summer died. (for my thoughts on Donna scroll down)  While I am not huge fan of Disco I remember loving the song and video for "She Works Hard for the Money"  This video was on heavy rotation back in the early days of Mtv.  In fact, reports say that Donna Summer was the first African American woman to ger heavy rotation status.  I remembered the chorus of the song as well as part of the video.  The part of the video I remembered was the end.  All these women in various uniforms dance.  Donna was dressed like a bad ass cop and I totally dug that uniform as a youngster.  Flash forward almost 30 years, I am in my kitchen watching the video.  How freakin' depressing.  The woman who was working so hard was working more than one job, had two bratty kids, apparently no spouse or outside help, a horrible  haircut and had to dance in a vest.  Good Gravy.  This is not the bad ass liberation video I remembered.  Maybe it was too much like my own life, scrubbing floors and shoveling slop.  At the end the women who had be working so hard does dance with abandon but then she just wanders off all blissed out.  Where does she go?  Is she abandoning her children?  Or was she working hard just for that one moment of Joy?  And Donna Summer, what is up with the fairy godmother slash peeping tom thing going on with you  in that video?

The I starting thinking about another beloved video from 1983 - "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" by Cyndi Lauper.  The themes of the two songs are very similar.  "Oh when the working day is done. Oh girls just wanna have fun."  But for some reason I believe Cyndi more.

Both songs can be considered Feminist anthems does Donna ruin it with her too realistic video.  Yes there is dancing at the end but Cyndi danced all the way through.

Of course the songs come from women of two different ages at two different places in their lives. Donna Summer wrote her song after being inspired by a waitress who was, yes you guessed it, working hard for her money.  Cyndi was young and seemed to have very little responsibility.

I don't know where I am going with this train of thought anymore.  Maybe just this -

As hard as you work everyday don't forget to dance.  Have a little fun, cause that all we really want.

As promised for all you scrollers - my thoughts on Donna Summer

What a freak!   Donna Summer, sadly died from lung cancer.  Could that be because she was a cigarette smoker?  Oh No!  She claims it was toxic dust from after the attacks of 9-11.  Okay she did live very close to the twin towers so it might be plausible but she also says she predicted the terrorist attacks before they happened. "My husband and I were walking down the street. I had this feeling. I said, ‘Honey, I feel like terrorism, high on top of the buildings." So perhaps she was just a bit too invested in the idea.  

Donna also once said AIDS was a punishment against gay men from God. Now she did back peddle once she realized that she is a Disco star and 1/2 of her fan base is gay but Come On!  Anyway.... Disco is not really my bag but for the most part I like Donna Summer's music.  For me she falls into the camp of people I think of as Woody Allen celbs.  They do very good interesting work but they are freak shows, whack jobs or otherwise not great people in their personal lives.  RIP Donna Summer RIP Disco (I hope)